Reign of Irony
by Rainkalen Warrior
Summary: SA The Sephiroth in FFVII that you run into throughout the game? Yeah, well, guess what-he's not the real Sephiroth! A legend awakens to find a world that has moved on without him. R
1. One

The only thing I own is a copy of the game FFVII.

A warm feeling, followed by the incredible sensation of melting away. It seemed his entire form, his being, his mind was dissolving into nothingness. Vaguely, he reached out to his mind, his sub consciousness seeming to flow back together, gathering thoughts, memories of times long gone. And then he was falling, endlessly, and the warm feeling was immediately replaced by a bitter, icy cold.

He was numb all over, only able to detect air whisking off his skin as he descended into the unknown. He wasn't sure how long he had been falling, but when at last his senses were his to control, he remembered twitching uncontrollably.

A moan escaped his lips, and he heard it, but not in his head. It was so distant, as if the person making it were a great distance away, and from a different viewpoint. All at once, everything came back to him...first the basics, the ability to think, speak, act...all his human instincts. Then came the most recent memories, vague as darkness but still undoubtedly there...

White light, forever and ever, maniacal laughter, erupting from his chest? Why had he been laughing? A pain so unbearable it seemed his heart had exploded in his chest...falling, forever and ever...

All this came unto him, shooting implausible pain into his head, in such great extent and amount that he cried out in pain and lost all awareness entirely, melting into the blackness that was already before his eyes, with that same, resounding, distant voice in his ears.


	2. Two

A hiker, by the name of Holzoff, nearly collapsed in the snow. He had pushed himself too hard and he knew it, but nothing was going to stop him this time. His oxygen was nearly depleted, and his lungs felt shriveled and useless weight in his chest. But he had nearly made it. "Yamski, my dear friend, if only we could have done this together..."

He dare not shed a tear, in fear it would freeze on his face and amount to nothing. He gathered his hiking sticks back into his hands where he had thrown them onto the icy surface. "All right, here I go..."

He stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh my God," he breathed, his statement no more than a cloud of mist in the frigid air.

A man lay there, sprawled upon the ground, bare entirely except for a pair of torn black pants and ragged ebony boots that were literally shredded to pieces. Long, tangled silver hair covered the majority of his unconscious form. Steam rose from his skin and the area around him. Holzoff rubbed his eyes, hardly daring to believe it. _This has to be one of those mirages you see when you've been out in the sun for too long, it has to be._

Still, even if it was a mirage, it looked so real. The mountain-climber felt he had to interfere, whether this vision was a work of his imagination or reality. He rushed over as quickly as his respiratory system would allow, his lungs now numb and expanding dully in his chest. With his heavily gloved hand, he reached out and touched the man. He felt real, all right, and despite his rapid blinking, he failed to disappear. _That's it, screw reality or not..._

He pulled the sled that he carried on his back onto the ground, and managed to heave the man upon it. It was no easy action. The mirage-like figure was a great height of six feet at least, and though he seemed lean enough, the muscle in his body seemed to forbid him to be very light in weight. Holzoff, fearing the man's imminent freezing, huddled the great woolen heated blanket over the man. "I'll get 'cha outta here as soon as I can, Buddy."

He fingered the PHS on his belt, bringing it into his hand and rapidly dialing the numbers. He held it to his ear while bent over the unconscious man. It ran three times before there was evidence of a response. "Yeah, Maggio's."

"Mark!" Holzoff sputtered, filled with gratefulness enough to burst.

"Hey, Mr. Holzoff. You want to talk to my dad?"

"Please, Mark."

"Yeah, one second."

As he waited, Holzoff allowed the phone to balance on his ear while he drug the sled into a nearby cave that his eyes had fell upon. His lungs felt ready to burst, but he wouldn't let them, not yet. He was in the entrance when a voice came on the phone.

"Shiro?"

"John! Hi, I'm kind of in a situation here..."

"Oh no, not stuck on the mountain again, I hope?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"You need a pick up?"

"Precisely."

Holzoff hauled the man into the cave, collapsing with a sigh upon the rocks as he took a green orb from his coat. The man on the other line sighed as well. "Sure thing, Shiro. But what is this, like the one hundred and thirtieth time? Heh heh, I'll need to count you on my income if we get to two hundred."

"Yeah, well...hurry, will you? I have the GPS coordinates..." he set the orb on his knee and pulled the GPS card from his coat. He plugged it into the PHS and pressed the transfer icon. "I'm sending them to you now."

"Ok got it...hold on a sec..." there was a brief encounter of static, and Holzoff took this opportunity to take the orb and wave his hand over it. A small fire erupted in midair and hung there. Holzoff immediately felt the warmth spreading throughout the room.

"Whoa, you're way the hell up there, man. You're in the utmost Northern Boundary, just below the crater! It'll take a half hour or so for us to get there, can you hold out?"

"Yeah. I got some fire materia here, so it should be okay. Thanks, John."

"No problem. Keep warm!"

The connection was broken, and Holzoff closed the PHS. He looked over at the man next to him. Where had he come from? There was no civilization around for miles, except for that one refuge on the glacier, and that had a population of ten square people. So where had he come from and what was he doing shirtless in these conditions? Holzoff pressed his fingers to the man's neck and felt a steady heartbeat. His chest rose slowly and smoothly, granting him the satisfaction a parent would get when watching a slumbering child.

Sometime or another, Holzoff had dozed off. He was asleep when the man next to him came to. The blanket shifted and fell away. The man moaned and his hands reached through the air. His eyes slid open, revealing eerie, Mako-illuminated green irises. But he saw nothing, only blackness. "Ugh," he groaned. His hearing seemed to be more stable, the voice he heard that was his own actually seemed to be so. His lips formed words, and he cringed from the effort. "W-where am...I? W-who am I?"

His mind seemed to pulse in an agonizing pain as it attempted to conjure the answers. "I'm...Se...Sephiroth..." the name sounded right, yes that was his name. It fitted him, like a relay clicking into place. The blackness he had witnessed it seemed for eternity had refused to fade, and it suddenly occurred to him he could not see. "I'm...blind? I..." but he nearly screamed in pain as his head began to throb, and he felt he could no longer hold control over his consciousness. It was slipping from his grasp, slowly, until all together it was gone and he lost all thought of being.

Holzoff was awakened by the sound of helicopter blades cutting through the frigid air. He rose and sprinted outside. He leaped up and down and waved his arms. "John! Over here!"

The helicopter descended, spewing snow in all directions as it did so. It threw a rope ladder from the side hatch. "John! I can't do that! I have another guy here! I need some help!"

A loudspeaker sounded. "Okay. How big is this guy?"

"Pretty big! Hurry, I don't know what his condition is or even if he's going to make it!"

"Roger."

Two men decked in heavy snow suits hurled a stretcher overboard, that Holzoff rushed to and stood upright. He ran in and grabbed the sled that harbored the still-unconscious man and began to drag it outside. He hoisted it atop the stretcher and tugged on the rope. As the platform began to rise, he leaped on himself. The two mean hauled the stretcher and Holzoff aboard as the helicopter flew off.

"Can you take me to Bone Village from here, John?" Holzoff shouted over the roar of the engine to the man in the pilot's seat. He clambered his way around the miscellaneous cases and crates to the cockpit.

The pilot turned and nodded. "Yeah, probably. We might have to make a fuel stop in Icicle Town, though. I dunno when Mark last filled the tanks. Where'd the guy come from, Shiro?"

"I have no idea!" Holzoff yelled as he sat in the copilot's chair. He sighed as the helicopter drifted away from the small cave. It would be about an hour's ride.

Sephiroth remained unconscious, but the two men in snow suits tended to him. They kept him bundled in thick blankets and placed heating pads beneath him. They murmured amongst themselves as they did so. "Hey, you know who this guy looks like?"

"Oh yeah...the General of the Shinra Army, right?"

"Yeah! The Great Sephiroth! He could practically be his twin. He must be a real junkie."

"And a lunatic. Who in their right mind would go to the Northern Boundary shirtless?"

Holzoff and John Maggio caught up on things, like the weather conditions and such, and got pretty far into conversation before they reached the small town of Bone Village. Maggio brought the copter to rest within a clearing in the trees.. "You takin' 'im to the infirmary?"

Holzoff nodded. "I feel I must. I feel responsible. Thanks again, John."

"No problem. Stop by soon, we got those oxygen tanks you wanted in stock. Goodbye, Shiro."

Holzoff, with the help of Maggio's two aides, managed to haul the unconscious man into the confinements of the infirmary, which was a plain, wooden building with smoke sprouting from the chimney. The receptionist looked up from the desk with raised eyebrows. "Do you require some assistance?" she asked merrily. Holzoff was grateful that the people in this town were so gracious.

"Yes...this man is alive, I have no doubts, but I do not know what his condition is."

"We'll have him examined as soon as possible, Sir!" The receptionist rang a bell and two doctors in white lab coats rushed out from the hall. They both found the stretcher and hoisted it, carried it into a room, and disappeared.

_Nothing to do now but wait, its in fate's hands, _thought Holzoff.

"I'll be staying at the Inn," Holzoff informed the receptionist. "Can I request for you to contact me when there's some confirmation?"

"Of course, Sir. Your name?"

"Shiro Holzoff."

He paced out, gracious for the air being so plentiful and thick here. It was warm, too, and his lungs felt better than they had in years. He entered the inn, paid his fee, and went immediately to sleep when he entered his room.


	3. Three

The man named Sephiroth awakened for the second time that day. This time, when his eyes opened, he was met with blurry images that flickered and eventually focused and broadened. His ears felt as if water was pouring from them, but he could hear remarkably well, as he remembered always being able to sharpen in on almost anything.

His muscles felt useless, but he found they functioned as he struggled to sit up. As his eyes darted around him, he realized that he was in an examination room, in a hospital, obviously, as there were several medical instruments sounding in a chorus of technology throughout the room. What...how did he end up here?

His hair had been washed, or something of the sort, and it draped around his shoulders in wet locks. He clenched his face in his hands as he struggled to remember. Where was he before this? How had he gotten here, and where was he now?

Somehow, memories erupted from the crevices of his mind as it thawed. Shinra...he had worked for Shinra...

_I'm going to reclaim this world for you, Mother._

Its ours, after all.

The humans won't stand a chance.

Not against both of us...now that we're together at last...

Somewhere, deep within the icy mountains of Nibel, his mind carried him. Pain. Surprise. Revelation. All these emotions, in perfect sequence as he recalled them. A mako reactor. A collection of horribly mutated humans, all sealed in individual containers, littered about the main room. A companion, nearby him, speaks. _"Are they special? Like you?"_ He speaks with fear and respect.

Anger. Denial. _"No...was I...was I created this way too?" _His voice, dreamlike and melodic. Sorrow. Overwhelming confusion. A desire to learn. An endless hunger for knowledge.

A dark basement in a stately, abandoned mansion. Books. Hundreds of books. A desire for isolation. A single day and night of reading. No sleep. Revelation. Confirmation. His mother. Jenova. Locked away in the reactor. A mission chosen, a mission initiated.

Madness. Flames. How dare the humans. The need for them to perish. Those defiant will survive. But not for long. Reunion at last, in the cold depths of the reactor. Freedom, release. His mother is free.

Resistance? From that soldier. Death. He must die. He is slain. Pacing, trudging, slowly, across a metal pathway, strewn over the elaborate interior of the reactor. More resistance. Taken by surprise. Inability to escape. Pain blossoms in his chest. Loss of balance. Falling. Falling forever into the icy green glow of the mako. Falling forever. All becomes darkness...

"Excuse me, Sir, but could you please state your name?"


	4. Four

At the gates of Bone Village, a cloaked girl walked briskly through the noisy atmosphere of chisels and pickaxes, desiring at all costs to just be seen and forgotten, like a stone set aimlessly at the side of the road.

She had already decided not to impose a burden on anyone by speaking to them. Her path rested beyond the village, through the mysterious Sleeping Forest, and across the river.

Her footsteps, as they lightly treaded the dirt roadway, refused to surrender any evidence of the heavy heart that thudded dully in her chest. The brightness of the setting sun on the horizon did nothing to lift the weight of immense regret that had burdened her mind for three long days.

Sorrow was Aeris Gainsborough's only companion on the path of her life now.

Three long days ago, she had departed from her friends. Wordlessly, she had left them, and traveled to the nearest seaside town she could happen upon and bargained for passage aboard a freight ship. Its destination fit her perfectly; the freighter was heading to Bone Village to deliver monthly supplies to the small group of researchers stationed there.

The voyage had passed all too quickly, but she had known it would. The entire journey, meant to save the Planet, had come into her life and ran its course over so little time, that she doubted the final stage would be of any great length. But where the excursion had failed to surprise her, it had succeeded in wrenching her strength.

She stopped, and stared around her for any sign of an inn. Tourists came here all the time, she knew, because she had once come as a child with her mother. There had to be a hotel, or some sort of inn, with which to house those travelers that had come too far for a single day's event to begin their return voyage home.

"If it weren't for the fact that I'm too tired to walk anymore, I would be apart of the Planet before midnight," she muttered to herself, all signs of fear absent in her voice.

The inn loomed before her, at the end of the road.

She walked toward it, opened the door, and stepped inside.

"Good evening, how much is it for a room?" she asked as she leaned over the counter and pulled the hood back from her face.

The receptionist, an elderly woman, gazed up at her from a book she was reading, her face all smiles. "Why, hello there dear. Are you here on vacation?" she inquired cheerfully, but all the same, awkwardly.

Aeris thought for a moment. _Remember, low-profile...you don't want them to follow you, Aeris. _"Vacation? Yes. Yes I am," she replied readily.

"That's odd. We don't receive much call this late in the year. Its too cold for most people, with this village being so near the Northern Limit and everything. You are alone, my dear?"

Aeris nodded. "Yes."

The receptionist peered into her eyes. She had expected them to be brilliant, as the young girl's beauty was striking in its own, as well as the aura of peace and kindness that seemed to flow endlessly from her mere presence and fill the room with a lighthearted cheeriness. But Aeris's eyes held no light. It had been quenched, it seemed, over time, as a flame is gradually worn down by a breeze. What remained was a futile spark, barely able to sustain any life at all.

"You must be exhausted," the woman suggested to her own suspicion, more than to Aeris.

"Yes, I am."

"Go on up.

"But, don't I need to pay you first?"

"Dear, we don't receive many visitors this time of year as it is. We'll manage."

"Thank you, thank you very much," she said, and turned and strode up the stairs.

_Its just not right, _the receptionist named Ilse Meyer thought as Aeris left for her room. _Its not right at all. Those eyes...so sad... Looking into her eyes was like watching a butterfly being trampled and torn apart for no reason at all. Something terrible happened to that girl, or something awaits her yet._


	5. Five

"Leave me," Sephiroth muttered, hands folded neatly between his back as he peered out of the window at the risen moon. "I'm not dying." _From what I can tell, I'm already dead._

"Incredible! You were frozen solid when you were brought in! How is it that you can even stand?" The doctor stood in the doorway, the clipboard in his hand long since forgotten as he stared at the man before him.

"Its quite simple, actually. There is a good chance that if I had been denied to stand and pushed back into that bed, the man whose hand refused to let me up would no longer have that hand." As the doctor stared at Sephiroth's hands, a knife flicked readily into view, and vanished in the blink of an eye. "And I'm quite sure, a man, especially a doctor, is not as useful to you or to anyone else when he has only a single hand with which to offer his services." Another moment of silence passed before Sephiroth turned, partially, just so that he met the doctor's eyes through the corner of one of his own.

A shiver crept down the doctor's spine as he thought of his fellow doctor having his hand ruthlessly severed by this strange but deadly man. "You-do you mean to leave, then?"

"That all depends. Where am I now? Somewhere on the Northern Continent..."

"Bone Village, Your Excellency."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. "Useless...what forms of transportation to, say, Midgar, does your city offer?"

"A-a ship takes the tourists to and from each continent. But all voyages are postponed this time of year. Business usually starts up again in late spring."

"And there is no other way? How does this town survive without transport?" Sephiroth's voice was growing all the more venomous and agile.

"A-a freight ship comes every month or so, but I'm afraid its just departed this morning, and won't return for at least another month."

"Of all the luck in the world," Sephiroth muttered as he turned and moved past the doctor.

"Y-your Excellency, might I just advise you to get a good night's rest at least? Then you can arrange your departure tomorrow..."

"I will sleep," he said icily, "But not here." He vanished out the doorway, where his footsteps resounded down the hallway, and out the back door, where he was gone into the night.

_The only way out of here is through Coral Cave, _he thought to himself. Coral Cave was across the Sleeping Forest and through the Ancient Capital. He was not particularly familiar with the Northern Continent, and so he decided it was best to depart when daylight illuminated his chosen path. _And then, I'll go to Icicle Town. I know they have aircraft there._

He thought deeply as he walked toward the inn. The doctor had mentioned he had been "frozen", and "brought in" to the hospital. Sephiroth had an explanation, as he often did for most events, but it was a bit rough around the edges. He remembered falling into the Mako within the Mt. Nibel reactor, of course. But it occurred to him that he had fallen into the very core of the Planet, somehow, someway.

The Lifestream. He remembered a man named Dr. Gast telling him all about the force that bonded every living thing together. When a creature died, their life energy became apart of the wondrous Lifestream and, therefore, the cycle of life and death. It was said to truly exist in physical form, and was indeed the source of the Mako energy. But it was only a myth, and something that science and theorist spoofs called an obsession with the unknown.

However, it explained everything perfectly. In the reactor, he had fallen into the Mako-the Lifestream itself-and had flowed within it until he reached a point where it froze; hence, the Northern Limit, where he currently was. And the part about him being "brought in"? Chance had it that a mountain climber or something of the sort had found him. But he remembered being cold, very cold, and in a partial state of consciousness not too long ago. It had been when he had first woken up, because he remembered the pain in his head as his mind became functional again.

He had been frozen in the Northern Limit, and then miraculously thawed in the icy weather? And just in time for a man to rescue him before he ultimately froze to death?

He had reached the inn. "This is making absolutely no sense at all," he muttered." Before entering the door, he decided not to think about anything for awhile. He knew who he was, he knew where he came from, and he had a logical guess as to why he was here, right now, and alive, that only time could prove correct. But he decided the reason for everything could wait.

He felt bare without his sword. _It was probably lost, forever. Not as fortunate as me. _

Sephiroth, unaccustomed to booking his own room, approached the desk cautiously. "I would like a room," he spoke clearly.

Ilse Meyer gazed up from her book, and her eyes widened. "Oh my. Are you...the Great...Sephiroth?! What are you doing here?"

"Just passing through."

"I...see. Well, I...ummm....its f-free. Go on ahead."

_What next? _Ilse thought.

Sephiroth nodded and turned away, his confidence boosted by Ilse's squeamish behavior. He found his room easily. In the hallway, however, he noticed a girl pass him by and open the door to her room. He was rewarded with a good look as she turned toward him. When her eyes met his, she turned away, as if she were embarrassed. He thought nothing more of it and turned into his own room. The room was simple, plainly decorated, but warm and welcoming. He opened the curtains to the window, and sat on the bed, staring out at the night sky.

All he wanted to do was get back to Midgar. Only the people there, perhaps only President Shinra himself, could have an explanation for everything. In Midgar, the people knew him. They respected him, feared him. And they would give him answers. What the incident in the Mt. Nibel reactor had been all about. Who was Jenova, and why was she locked away in the reactor like she had been? Why had he gone insane? And, most importantly, how long had he been frozen-if that was the case, as he feared it to be-in the Northern Limit?

Well after midnight, he turned in, knowing his internal instincts would probably awaken him around four in the morning.

He dreamed.

He was in a forest. An enchanted forest, filled with silence. _The Sleeping Forest, _he thought,. _Gateway to the Ancient Capital._

A girl poked her head out from behind the trees. "Cloud, can you hear me?" Her voice echoed throughout the silence of the forest. She looked oddly familiar to him. As if he had seen her before...just recently...in the inn...

_...Cloud? I'm not Cloud..._

"Yeah, I hear you. Sorry for what happened." Another voice. There was no form that appeared to claim it, but it was deep. A man's voice.

The girl weaved in and out of the trees, appearing in one area, and then another. "Don't worry about it," came her reply.

"...I can't help it..."

"Oh..." the girl dropped from the trees above and tipped her head sideways in thought. "Then why don't you REALLY worry about it? And let me handle Sephiroth."

_Handle me? What do you mean? Who are you?_

The girl went on talking, as if she could not hear him. "And Cloud, you take care of yourself. So you don't have a breakdown, okay?" Her face had concern and sadness, as if she could do nothing to help.

"What is this place?" A form appeared in the scene, as Sephiroth viewed it from somewhere above. He had spiky blonde air, and glowing blue eyes infused with Mako. The man looked around twenty years old, and was adorned in a SOLDIER uniform. He looked tough, and weather worn, and like an old tree that has seen many seasons, probably had a story to tell.

_He looks familiar..._

"This forest leads to the City of the Ancients...and is called the Sleeping Forest," she said softly, gesturing all around her. The lightness in her voice faded, however, as she bowed her head and sighed. "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor."

_Use Meteor?_

"That's why I'm going to protect it. Only a survivor of the Cetra, like me, can do it."

_A Cetra...? The Ancients..._You're_ an Ancient?_

"The secret is just up here," she said, turning. "At least it should be. ...I feel it. It feels like I'm being led by something." Her gaze became lost in the distance. She hesitated, forlorn and afraid as she stared back at the man named Cloud.

"Then, I'll be going now." Her fear suddenly fled, like shadows in the sunlight. She straightened, as if she had accepted her fate. "I'll come back when it's all over." Her voice, however, had not discarded her fear. She turned and began to run toward the light that peered through the distance of the edge of the forest.

"Aeris?" Cloud questioned, as if he did not believe what he was seeing. His voice was weak and regretful. He began to follow her, running, but his legs seemed to carry him nowhere. The forest was endless to those who did not know the way.

Then, to Sephiroth's surprise and confusion, he himself dropped from the trees. But it was not him, because he was watching from above. He was clothed in Sephiroth's clothes, the only attire he had ever thought to wear and taken a liking to, and in his hand was...

_My sword!_

He watched himself turn toward Cloud and speak to him. "Hmm...She's thinking of interfering? She will be a difficult one, don't you think?"

_Interfering? Interfere with what? What have you done?_

"We must stop that girl soon," he said, an eerie sort of finality in his voice as he turned to pursue the girl.

_No...you're not...no more death..._

"Ah!"

He leapt up, fully awake with eyes wide. That girl. She was here, now, in this very inn. It was strange he had dreamed of her, but Sephiroth knew he had no time to wonder at the situation. The dream was real, a vision. He knew. He just knew. And he had to act. He rose, immediately. It was early, still, and the sun had not yet risen. The girl would lead the way through the forest, as she undoubtedly had in his dream, and he realized he must follow her. If he did, he was sure to find answers. And prevent the most unwanted creation of any more questions. He had a feeling she would wait until daylight, and in that case, so would he. He would follow her, silently, just as the surreal version of himself had shown intentions of doing.

He kept very still and silent, waiting for the click of an opening door to bring him into action.

_Meteor? Handle me?_

He waited with fear spreading throughout his mind.

_What in the hell happened while I was gone?_

__


	6. Author's Note

Let me just take a moment to clarify something : The dialogue in the dream sequence between Cloud and Aeris is taken directly from the game. (I even played through the Temple of the Ancients just so I could get what the characters really said) So...yeah. In the next chapter, some of the dialogue will be taken from the game as well.

When I uploaded, I had trouble making asterisks appear on the finished product, so I couldn't fit that disclaimer in without it looking like it was apart of the story...so I'm writing it now. Once again, I don't own anything except a copy of the game.

Thanks for reading!


	7. Six

Two worried forms sat looking over their slumbering friend. One, a giant man with a gun for one arm, another a kind but fierce looking girl with long, dark brown hair. Barret Wallace and Tifa Lockhart had barely had time to recover from the horrific incident at the Temple of the Ancients before having to rush an unconscious Cloud Strife to the nearest town with an inn: the ill-fated Gongaga Town.

"You look like you was havin' a nightmare," Barret said as he saw Cloud's eyelids flicker. "How are you feeling?"

Cloud blinked. "I seem to be okay."

Barret sighed, but with relief. "That's good. Man, I didn't know what was gonna happen." His head turned toward the entrance of the room.

Tifa stood there, arms crossed. "You know, Cloud. Aeris is gone."

Barret nodded, moving away from Cloud's bedside. "Everyone's out looking for Aeris."

".....City of the Ancients. Aeris is headed there." Cloud murmured.

"By herself?! Why did she go by herself?!" Barret exclaimed. He took Cloud's odd behavior into consideration in his response. _The guy's just too weird to be wrong, _he thought. _I feel I gotta believe him. _"Hey, we're goin' too." He rose to leave.

Cloud's hand left his side and reached out toward Barret. "Only the Ancients, only Aeris can save us from Meteor..." he called weakly, as if he were reminding Barret of his incapability in the entire matter. That it was completely out of all of their hands. Saving the Planet was not a job for a limited, rag-tag group of individuals. There was nothing special about any of them. Any of them, of course, except for Aeris.

"Then we must go!" Tifa persisted, her eyes pleading for cooperation. "What'll we do if something happens to Aeris? If Sephiroth finds her, she's in trouble."

"Sephiroth...already knows." Cloud's report came lazily, as if he were still lost in the sanctity of his dreams and not at all back in reality. His hand covered his eyes and gradually shifted to massage his temples.

Again, Barret turned to leave, but was held back by Tifa's hand on his arm. He immediately turned and glared at Cloud. He stopped his foot angrily, causing the room to shake. "Hey! Why are you still sittin' around?"

"Let's go Cloud," Tifa pleaded emptily.

But Cloud shook his head. "No. I might lose it again. If Sephiroth comes near me I might...."

Barret clenched his fist so tight his knuckles began to pop. "Yeah, godammit! It's 'cuz of you that Sephiroth got the Black Materia in the first place. It's your damn fault!"

But the ex-SOLDIER responded coolly with a single raised eyebrow. "My fault?"

Barret ignored him, throwing up his arms and rolling his eyes. "I know you got problems...hell, we all do. But you don't even understand yourself." He shook his head in disgust. "But you gotta understand that there ain't no gettin' offa this train we're on, till we get to the end of the line."

"Cloud," Tifa said softly, "We came this far...Aren't you going to settle up with Sephiroth?"

"No...I'm afraid. If this keeps up, I may go crazy! I'm afraid..." Cloud's voice broke off into a whisper. The very tone of his voice seemed forced from a core of immense internal suffering and chaos.

"Just a damn jackass, that's what you are..." Barret said indifferently. "Jes' think about it...How many people in this world do ya think really understand themselves? People get depressed in life because they don't know what's up. But, they go on living. They don't run away...Isn't that how it is?"   
_Nice, Wallace, very nice, _Cloud thought. _If only you knew what I was going through..._

"Cloud...you'll come with us, right? I believe in you." Tifa's voice seemed to perk up with encouragement.

"What...am I supposed to do?" Cloud demanded out of desperation. He seemed to be speaking more to the empty air than to his companions. "Pull out of here? Pull out? ...To where?"

"Cloud..." Tifa attempted to calm him.

In a strict, father-like movement, Barret took her arm and pulled her toward the door. "Wait a minute, Tifa. Give him a little time. He has to decide this on his own. You believe in Cloud, right?"

Cloud was not rewarded with hearing an answer from Tifa, however, as they soon left, leaving the door open. It was a like a portal of opportunity. It was Cloud's choice, and his alone, as Barret had said, to remain here and die of misery and overwhelming confusion, or to continue on, pursuing what his heart told him was the direction of righteousness.

He rose, and walked out the door, muttering, ".....I'm afraid to find out the truth...? But.....why?"

"Have you decided?" Barret asked him as soon as he met up with them outside. "We leave as soon as you're ready. The others are jes' outside the town."

Cloud bowed his head. "I'm ready to go now. Let's go find Aeris." He trudged past them and onto the path that led out of Gongaga. "Come on."

"And Cloud," Barret stopped him in mid-step. "If you go crazy again, if it happens, it happens. Jes' don't worry about it. Tifa and I will set you straight."

An evil cackle of laughter resounded throughout the small town, accompanied by a hissing voice. _We'll see, Human...how you compare to my power when it comes to controlling that pathetic creature...we'll see..._


	8. Seven

Dawn.

"This will be the last time I see the sun rise," she whispered solemnly as she stood, hands placed on her windowsill.

She watched the waking world beyond the glass panes, trying to forget the gruesome void that had formed in her heart. She had always been so full of hope, so full of willingness toward the future. The dank, suffocated atmosphere of the slums in which she had grown up had offered little promise for a happy ending to her life. Hope had been her only ration in a starving world; but now, she was helpless. That hope was gone. The light that had always guided her was extinguished, its ashes cold and dead.

She stepped away reluctantly, experiencing a reaction almost alike to being torn away from a perfect dream to heed the beckoning of harsh reality. But there was no turning back, no going back to sleep. She would not have the situation any other way, she assured herself. That gap would soon be filled, when she found eternal happiness.

_Yes, happiness, _she thought, _but only after great pain._

Aeris sighed and turned away. She silently opened her door, being especially careful so as to not wake the innkeeper. If Cloud and the others were following her, and came to this very inn seeking information on her whereabouts, she did not want to leave them any verification as to when she had left. AVALANCHE was to be left no trail, it would be conveniently swept clean, and their road would be blocked, at least until the time when it no longer mattered.

The old floorboards creaked, even under her light weight, and she paused, wincing in fear that another door would open and she would be discovered. But nothing happened. The hallway remained deadly silent. She attempted to lighten her gait until she reached the stairs, where she descended as quickly as she could. Passing the front desk, she forced a handful of gil out of her coat pocket and gently but firmly placed it on the counter. Nodding to herself, she found the entry door, opened it, and stepped through it into the cool morning air.

****

- - - - - - - - - -

After hearing the sound of the second door being closed, Sephiroth counted mentally ten seconds before rising, and gradually making his way out of the inn as well.

She had already passed into the trees, and was nearly out of sight as Sephiroth emerged into the outside world. He paced after her, being extra careful to silence his footsteps. The small village around him was just beginning to awaken. Tent flaps were being thrown up, lanterns and campfires were being extinguished, workers were grumbling about the start of yet another day of work.

Sephiroth followed her easily. She moved quickly, but on a predictable path, through the trees. She avoided the areas of dense underbrush and the paths overgrown with thick, protruding roots. At times, when he felt he was drawing too near to her, Sephiroth would be forced to take these alternate routes to allow a larger gap between them. He grimaced and scowled in disgust as he stumbled and scurried through the undergrowth, wishing against anything and everything that he had his beloved Masamune blade.

It was fifteen minutes or more of travel in this way, until all movement ahead of him came to an abrupt halt, along with the Cetra girl. He nearly shivered; the silence was so complete. Not a bird stirred in the trees above, not a breeze rustled the branches. Everything was as still as stone. He immediately quieted his breathing. The dream, he realized, had failed to prepare him for this.

The girl, meanwhile, had paused, only to bow her head, and clasp her hands together. Sephiroth winced as he watched her. The absence of nature-of sound in general, was driving him insane. The atmosphere, here, in this area of the forest, was so silent it was as if the area were dead. Dead or...distilled in a death-like sleep.

Sleep.

The Sleeping Forest.

So it was true. Sephiroth had heard of this mysterious place many a time from excited SOLDIER recruits en route to a mission. Huddled together often in a truck or a plane, they would mutter amongst themselves of the stories they had grown up listening to. In an effort to lift the spirits of their fellow comrades-something Sephiroth despised-they would tell these tall tales. To Sephiroth, these moments were, thankfully, short, but, as he realized now, very informative.

One soldier's story involved the Sleeping Forest. It was quiet, he had said, in order to never disturb the ancient trees. It was a curse, he had said, that the Ancients had placed on it, to guard the entry to their capital. If one sought passage through the trees, they would have to awaken them. If the trees were awoken in a gentle manner, they would yield to the traveler and prepare a pathway. If they were awoken in a destructive manner, they would lead the traveler to his death. And, of course, if they weren't awakened at all, the traveler would lose his mind in the silence of the forest, trying to find the way out, wandering aimlessly until he could no longer walk.

He wondered what route the Cetra would take. No matter what she did, he would have to follow her even more closely, and that was a risk. He was unarmed, without a weapon and without materia, and the girl looked ripe with both. Though small, she was Cetra, and that in its own was enough for him.

Lost in his thoughts, Sephiroth's eyes darted to the girl when he noticed her begin to kneel upon the ground.

_What are you doing? _he thought.

In a moment, he received his answer. He could not see them, could not feel them, but their voices were as clear as a ringing bell. Many, many celestial-like voices murmuring, some shouting, others pleading. They filled the air, they filled the sky, and they filled the trees. He watched, breathlessly, as the Cetra rose, her back completely toward him. Where only moments before there had been endless forest, a path emerged in front of her. Several feet of lush vegetation had long since overgrown the road, but it was still easily distinguishable.

The girl began to walk. Sephiroth began to follow, briskly, in fear the trees would swallow him upon his passage. _Just how long has it been since this path was last used? _he wondered. _A thousand years, at least, since it was used by _them.

It had been, of course,_ their _voices that had responded to the girl. The Cetra. The Ancients. Nurturers and speakers of the Planet. Until they had met their untimely end, and had ceased to exist. Sephiroth remembered, vaguely, reading something about them. It had been just before his fall into the Mako in the reactor, he remembered. But he could not remember what it was that he had read.

The trek through the forest seemed to end prematurely; not five minutes later, and he had come upon a beautiful valley. Across from the river at the bottom, there was a giant white tree. Surrounding it were the remains of a once-grand city, on pieces of land in the water. These islands were filled with shell-like structures that resembled houses. This was Corral Valley. To the west, he could see the roadway leading to Corral Cave. The Cetra girl had already begun to descend a paved pathway into the Ancient Capital, not bothering to take in the scenery as he had.

A thought struck him as he followed her. That surreal version of himself-he had pledged to follow her, just as he was doing. Suppose that version was close upon them right now? Or was he already here? Worse yet, another question that he attempted to erase from his mind in fear of more, drastic confusion: what if _he_ wasthat version of himself, and he had failed to see it coming, failed to not fall as fate swept the rug out from beneath him?

_No...its, its someone else. Something else. It has to be._

He was on alert, from that moment on, should that "other him" suddenly emerge. He had little idea, however, what exactly he was going to do when he encountered _himself._

The voices were stronger here. Only there was a great deal more pleading and supposed cries of pain now that he had entered the Capital. As if the graves of those Ancients long dead were yawning and yielding up their suffering dead, those poor beings that had to eternally endure the painful cries of the Planet they served. But what was so wrong? Again, Sephiroth grew angry at how little he knew about everything.

****

- - - - - - - - - -

Aeris wasted no time. All that fell before her eyes did not reach and concur with her mind. A little part of her seemed to be screaming inside her head, begging for a chance to enjoy the sights around her. To enjoy the air that her ancestors had breathed, enjoy the walk on the paths they had created. But she was being led by something, something that the voices of the Ancients around her were harkening to. It would not let her veer off her course, off the main path that seemed to be leading to the great white tree in the heart of the forgotten city.

She passed through the entrance carved into a coral structure, into a crystalline-like cave that glittered in the sunlight that filtered through the branches of the white tree above. The path was as straight as an arrow.

She emerged upon a shell structure that was extended over a small lake. Surrounding it, she discovered, were several white trees, which she had mistakenly taken for a single, giant tree. A great ray of sunlight flashed and shone on the shell-house, as if beckoning her to come closer. The voices were leading her there. She entered.

A few moments later, she was descending, surrounded by darkness. The steps she walked on seemed to be made of a clear, blue-ish crystal. They made no noise as she stepped on them. It seemed like an eternity had passed when she came upon the bottom. It was a holy place, of some sort. A collection of towers and...an altar, she realized, were built on top of a sort of pedestal that seemed the only structure in the endless darkness. Scattered rays of sunlight reflected off of partially-constructed crystal walls that enveloped the tiny collection of buildings.

The altar was where she was being led. The voices called to her, in words she could only partially understand.

_This way._

It shall soon be over.

This way.

She descended yet another set of stairs, discovering the shallow water that lay beneath everything. Pedestals lay in that water, and formed a risen path towards the altar. She crossed the gap, and when she reached the structure, she immediately fell to her knees and the cloak that covered her face fell away.

_Pray. Talk to us, _whispered the voices. _Speak to us._

- - - - - - - - - -

Sephiroth watched everything. He descended the stairs, but only after he had seen her close her eyes.

_What now? _he wondered as he stared at the motionless form of the praying girl.

The sound of human voices reached his ears. He raised his head, realizing they were coming from above. He looked up, and saw a golden-haired man, dressed in a SOLDIER uniform and brandishing a giant sword.

_Its him! _Sephiroth's mind screamed at him. _From the dream..._

Continuous military policy throughout his life had formed a procedure in his mind; observe, without the subject in question's knowledge, decide, and then execute. If that man-Cloud, or whatever his name was, encountered him, there was no telling what he would do, how he would react. Sephiroth was in no condition to pick a fight with anyone...not yet, at least. He would wait, until he got answers. Until he discovered who his enemy was. Then, when they had their back turned...

"Barret, Tifa...come on, I think she's down here," came the SOLDIER's voice.

Sephiroth grinned as he thought back to the dream. _So, you managed to make it through the forest._

"Hurry, Sephiroth could be anywhere," cried Cloud's female companion.

Raising an eyebrow in puzzlement, Sephiroth began to edge his way out of the room in which the crystal stairs descended. Unseen by the Cetra, he found a ladder leading to the cone-like roof of one of the three towers surrounding the altar. He hurriedly climbed it, keeping to the side so as to avoid the eyes of Cloud and his companions.

It took them a few moments to reach the bottom. Cloud's head whipped around in several directions, anticipating an attack. He waved his comrades on. Upon seeing the Cetra girl, however, praying on the altar, he held up a hand in front of his friends. "Aeris?" he called to her.

She did not respond. Sephiroth watched as the man bit his lip and then leaped forward, crossing the steps to reach the altar. Cloud paused, however, on the third one, to pull his sword before him. His knees bent as if he were preparing to leap at the girl, probably only to slice her head off in the process.

_What the hell? What is he doing?_

Sephiroth, then, catching a sight of glinting silver in the corner of his eye, rapidly turned his head toward another rooftop, adjacent to his own. He was rewarded with the sight of...himself?! It was. The man looked exactly like him...everything. The dream had been correct. The imposter had his arms crossed, his lips fixed into a wicked grin that Sephiroth himself remembered giving his own, past dying enemies only too often. The imposter was his exact replica.

_Who has done this?!_

The SOLDIER's friends cried out at their comrade in shock. "Cloud?! What in the frickin' damn hell are you doin'?! Knock it off!" bellowed the man with the gun-arm.

Luckily, the man's voice was enough to distract Cloud. Sephiroth turned his head just enough to see that the man lost his balance, tilting over as his sword slid into the water. He clutched the edge of the pedestal with his hands as he dangled off of it, waving for assistance. His eyes expressed a clear concern as if he had not a clue as to what was going on.

"Useless!" the imposter hissed. He drew his sword...

_Masamune!_

Sephiroth's eyes widened as they darted from the imposter to the girl, still locked silently in prayer and completely unaware of anything.

And then it was that he understood. The altar, below him, it wasn't a place for prayer. It was a place for...sacrifice...

Someway, for some reason, his "clone" meant to kill her. He had been manipulating the one named Cloud, whom had failed to execute the task. The imposter now meant to do the job himself, kill the Cetra himself.

But Sephiroth could not let that happen, he could not. All of these people-they had to remain alive. They had to tell him what was going on. They _had _to! Even the clone was not to be killed...until he decided otherwise. But the Cetra could not be killed. She...there was something about her that told him, from the moment he had met her eyes in the inn, that she knew something he needed to know.

And he intended to find out what it was.

He leaped from his position on the rooftop, then, just as his clone did, hoping he could somehow disarm him before it was too late.

_I can't fail, _Sephiroth said as the imposter's head darted towards him, and the creature's eyes flared with anger and perplexment. _Failure has never been an option. _

****

- - - - - - - - - -

NOTE: If you're wondering why I changed the names of my chapters its because I'm getting tired of naming them. So from now on it'll just be one, two, etc. Much easier on my part. Thank you for reading and thank you all for the wonderful reviews!


	9. Eight

Sephiroth's eyes met those of his mirror-image as he fell along beside him. The creature regarded him, took note of his presence, but was not deterred from his deadly course of action. The fire that consumed the clone's eyes was one Sephiroth knew quite well; it was an unspoken law in his own mind, one that said the mission was never over, and could never be abandoned, until every stage was completed, every objective met.

But not this time.

In a single act born out of desperation, Sephiroth hurriedly drove his heel into the opposition's chest. A distinct cracking noise resounded throughout the area, sounding uncomfortably to all of the witnesses like dry wood being split by an axe. Three of the imposter's ribs had been instantly splintered by a steel-lined boot. The creature grunted, thrown off course and completely befuddled as his fingers gradually uncurled and the blade of Masamune fell away from his grasp.

Both men landed on the altar. Sephiroth had rolled so as to soften his impact, but the clone had landed-to his original's bewilderment-without a sound. The creature seemed entirely weightless. It was a wonder he had fallen at all. But this seemingly inhuman trait was instantly negated as the man broke down into a horrible fit of coughing.

Sephiroth's attention lay elsewhere.

He had succeeded in preventing the death of the Ancient.

_But, _his conscience demanded, _for how long?_

The Cetra girl, her face a mask of immense fear and uncertainty, still knelt in her fixed position, directly between the two rivals. Her eyes darted from one version of the Shinra general to the other. Sephiroth seized his chance; he reached out and secured her forearm in a grip of iron. The girl released a startled cry as she was brusquely hauled to her feet and unceremoniously shoved behind him until she collided with the railing of the altar. "Stay _there_," he ordered. The icy tone of his voice seemed to dare her to do otherwise.

"N-no!" came the sputtering voice of the clone as he attempted to straighten his posture. "Leave the Cetra...leave her for me..." he was cut off as he collapsed onto his knees. Spasms wracked the imposter's body. His hands clutched his head, and his eyes were clenched shut as a wave of pure agony shivered through his form. It seemed as if a million voices were screaming inside his mind, as if there were an intense flame burning the man alive from the inside. Tears of agitation had managed to escape from his sealed eyes.

It was then that Sephiroth saw it.

Intense, liquefied Mako was flowing from this lifeform as freely as water. In place of what should have been blood, gathering at the corners of the imposter's mouth was the unmistakable gleaming substance of Mako. The sweat that lined his forehead, Mako. Even the tears that spilled down the slopes of his cheeks were purified droplets of raw Mako energy.

Sephiroth looked on in amazed horror.

"I cannot be destroyed," the imposter uttered, his words broken as he was repeatedly overtaken by waves of pain. "I am the chosen one. You are an inferior abomination, and, therefore, it is _you_ who must be destroyed..."

At this statement, it became apparent to Sephiroth, at long last, that he could not let this creature survive. If he did, he risked his own life in the process. His own life, which had only just recently been given back to him.

He recognized the effects of the Mako on the humanoid right before his eyes. It was slowly, but steadily healing its keeper. He had seen it so many times before, on the battlefield. Injured SOLDIER's bodies were consumed by the Mako as they lay dying. Sometimes, they would rise to strike blades with their enemy once more. However, more often than not, their enemies would seal them completely to their fate by not giving the Mako a chance to complete its work...by not giving the victims a chance to stand back up...

The injection of Mako into members of SOLDIER, in order to immediately begin healing inflicted wounds...it had been the failure of the brainchild of the Shinra science department...the flaw of its head professor, a man named...Hojo...

But this imposter was _entirely_ filled with Mako. It was not blood that ran in his veins, but Mako that was the creature's lifeblood, and the very reason for his existence.

It was clear. This creature was not human. It was a creation.

Its existence meant one thing to Sephiroth; the need for its destruction. It had no right to exist.

One instinct, and one instinct alone took the helm of Sephiroth's mind. The urge to kill. His eyes scoured his surroundings, pleading for the promising sight of his sword out of sheer desperation. He found it. It was fixed in an upright position, the blade lodged in a fissure in one of the pedestals rising from the water.

_Not enough time...not enough time..._

His enemy's recovery was nearly complete.

Sephiroth suddenly remembered the knife strapped inside his boot. He knelt, praising fate that he possessed it, and pulled it free. Just as his clone had risen to his feet, completely healed, Sephiroth hurled the knife into the fraud's chest. It struck the creature's heart. The imposter's eyes shot wide and his cry of surprise was abruptly cut off.

The Mako had already begun its mending work, and its recovery rate would steadily increase now that the substance was properly surging through the clone's bloodstream. But the act had successfully bought Sephiroth all the time he needed. While his target again struggled to cope with the painful healing process, Sephiroth leapt from the altar. At an inhuman speed, he retrieved the sword. In another flash of movement, he was behind his opponent, the great blade in his hand pressed firmly against the clone's throat. The entire scene, as bizarre as it was to observe, seemed to permanently suspend before the eyes of all of its viewers.

"Who are you?" Sephiroth's voice was calm and deadly as he whispered into his rival's ear.

The fraud refused to struggle, his body still plagued by the painful effects of the Mako's restoration process. "I am the Great...Sephiroth..."

Sephiroth shook his head mockingly, his eyes smiling wickedly. "Wrong answer."

The creation was shoved unceremoniously onto his knees. The true great general of Shinra, thought long lost from the world, rose his infamous blade and in a single deadly arc, cleaved the clone's head cleanly from his neck. The altar's flawless surface was instantly saturated in a shower of Mako, which quite simply, by all ethical standards, should have been blood.

- - - - - - - - - -

It was over.

Whatever it had been, it was over.

Aeris winced as she watched Sephiroth turn toward her, instantly expecting him to murder her as well. It was, of course, exactly what her ancestors had foretold. She bowed her head as he advanced on her, channeling all of her strength into her body to keep it from trembling. If she was going to die, she was going to do it as she had been prepared to do it: courageously and honorably.

She waited for the painful blow, eyes squeezed tightly shut, praying that Cloud and the others would remain where they were and, for once, not come to her rescue. She could hear the ex-SOLDIER shouting her name.

Ten seconds. Nothing happened. She begged and pleaded with her murderer in her head.

_Slay me. Don't wait to do it...I hate waiting, please..._

"What are you doing?"

It was his deep, melodic voice that broke the unnerving, anxious silence. He was speaking to her? As if he did not know? She opened her eyes and peered up at him. The question really was, what was _he _doing? Though Aeris had no justification for the sudden combat between the two men, (both of which fit the description of her would-be murderer) she had assumed it was all apart of the big picture. Something, undoubtedly strange, but a matter that did not affect-_could_ _not_ affect the eventual outcome.

"Why do you look so prepared to die?" he asked her after she had failed to answer his first question. His patience was drawing thin, and his naturally glowing eyes flared at her. "Answer me!"

"Don't play your games with me. You know exactly why," she finally said, her words like ice.

"No, actually, I do not know exactly why. Perhaps you could tell me?"

It had been more of a command than a request. She was spared having to answer, however, as Cloud suddenly appeared at her side. His sword was drawn, held out firmly in front of him. "Leave her alone, you crazy bastard," the man uttered through clenched teeth, his Mako-consumed, sapphire eyes narrowed suspiciously at Sephiroth. "I'm ready now. I wasn't back then, but I am now."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "What are you..."

"Don't pretend like you don't know! I remember everything you did. My family, my friends, my hometown...I lost everything, because of you! You were even going to take Aeris from me! You're going to pay for it. You're going to pay for it all..." He rose his sword-

"Wait! Stop!" Aeris threw herself before Cloud. "Cloud, you don't understand...I...I came here, knowing I was going to die. Knowing that Sephiroth was going to kill me. It was something I was prepared for. Its something that must be done. Before he summons Meteor."

Sephiroth interjected. "Meteor?"

"Yes!" Aeris said, her face desperate as she turned to face him.

"Then he must be killed! Before he summons it!" Cloud once again advanced on him, and Aeris's plea of reprisal was lost in Cloud's fury.

This time, the Buster sword was in full-swing. An instant later, however, its path was interrupted by Masamune. Sephiroth's hands braced either end of his beloved sword as he, assisted by his greater strength, easily held off Cloud's attack. "If your goal is to destroy me, then I shall have to destroy you first. But only after you answer my questions. Keep in mind that I am not that much different from him," he said, gesturing to the headless body of the clone. "I will kill you if necessary."

Cloud scowled at him. "Burn in hell," he hissed through clenched teeth. "Your flunkie failed his mission, so you want to do it yourself. You were always like that. It always had to be you who had to get the job done."

_"...Mom, Tifa, the townspeople...my hometown...give it back..." the young, blonde-haired SOLDIER held the blade menacingly before him and drove it into Sephiroth's chest. Pain erupted, as his flesh was pierced by his own sword._

"Ughh...who are...you?" he moaned in a dying voice before being hurled off the edge, falling...forever...

Memories had filled his mind once again. And then he knew. Sephiroth knew who the man was. "You killed me," Sephiroth said plainly. He seemed to draw his strength from the air, it came to him so freely. "You. It was you who threw me into the Mako..." he shoved Cloud backwards, so that the shorter man was against the railing. "It was you. You are responsible for everything."

"Cloud..." Aeris was regarding him with a look of puzzlement. "What is he talking about?"

"Aeris, I'm kinda busy right now..." Cloud said, desperately trying to release himself from his pinned down position. "Run...hide...get away from him..."

"Oh, do not worry for her, Cloud Strife," Sephiroth said, smirking at him. "Worry more about yourself. No need to be so honorable. By all means, show your fear. It is no surprise to me. The man you thought you killed has come back to haunt you, that's all."

"Aeris!" Cloud shouted again. "Run! Now!"

Aeris stood, rooted to the ground in fear. "No, Cloud...I can't let him hurt you...this was my problem, all along. Let me handle it."

- - - - - - - - - -

Sephiroth sighed. In a single quick movement, he took the hilt of his sword and brought it down on Cloud's head. The man slumped to the ground like a broken doll. "I tire of speaking, it seems to always lead to nowhere." Sephiroth looked toward Cloud's comrades. They both were preparing to attack. "I suppose I will have to go on an alternate route, after all."

Aeris shivered as his eyes locked with hers. He made as if to advance on Barret and Tifa. Aeris held her hand up to her friends, telling them not to attack. "Wait," she said quietly, looking to Sephiroth. "You...mentioned questions..."

Sephiroth smirked to himself. All he had to do was play along with these people. They had cast him as the villain, and if that was the role he had to play in order to get what he wanted, then so be it. The Cetra knew that he knew she was useful...it was best to appeal to her.

"I did mention questions, but what of it?"

"I'll...I'll answer them, for you." Her reply came hesitantly.

He tipped his head sideways. "You will? But you couldn't possibly be requesting something in return, am I right?" His words were cold and sarcastic.

"Let them go, please. Let my friends go."

He shook his head., pretending to consider it. "But how shall I know if you are qualified to answer my questions to my satisfaction?"

"I-must be of some use to you." Aeris said, pleading with him. He could tell she regretted the words as soon as she had spoken them. She added, "I don't understand why you didn't kill me, it goes against everything I have believed."

He heard her last statement, but chose not to respond. He made a mental note to bring it up later.

_I'm the villain. No harm in taking the part seriously. Let her think what she wants about me. I can cast her aside in the end._

"Very well." he took her arm and began to lead her away from the altar.

She stared at him, wholly confused. "But-I thought you wanted me to-"

"A deal is a deal," he said icily as they crossed the pedestals, one by one.

Barret had overheard the bargain. "No...Aeris, what the hell do ya think you're doin'?! He was gonna kill you just a few minutes ago! Get the hell outta the way so I can blast his head off!" He barred Sephiroth's passage.

Aeris shook her head. "No, Barret...I'll be fine. Really. Just remember...to take care of Cloud."

But Barret would not move.

"I tire of this," Sephiroth said. He held up Aeris's arm, eyes falling to her materia bracelets. He had been correct, the Cetra _did_ possess a Sleepel orb. He plucked it free and waved his hand over it.

Immediately, a mist rose from the tiny sphere. It flowed over to Barret and Tifa. Aeris watched as their eyelids drew closed. They both collapsed in a heap as their legs gave out from under them and they fell instantly into a deep sleep. She had seen it so many times before, during battles.

"By the way," Sephiroth said, whispering into her ear, "I never intended any harm to you or your companions. I am, however, eternally grateful that you've volunteered so readily. I have much that I need to know."

Aeris doubted the man was telling the truth. But she felt that she could not suffer any worse of a fate than death at her enemy's hands, and she had already been prepared for such an event long before any of this had happened.

_So be it, _she thought.

__


	10. Nine

The sun's light was just beginning to fade behind the mountains as they entered Corral Cave. Aeris sighed, deeply resenting the fact that her enemy's hand was still locked around her arm, and the fact that she was being roughly hauled along like extra baggage. 

Sephiroth had appointed her into his precarious position all over questions that he needed answers to. The man seemed omnipotent as it was, what more did he need to know? He had the power to freely manipulate others, he had possession of the...

"Where is the Black Materia?" she suddenly blurted out.

"I thought I was to be asking you the questions," he retaliated, ducking as he entered the darkness of the cave.

"Y-yes," she stammered. "But I-"

He stopped, then, abruptly, and in an instant, he was facing her, his radiant eyes demanding obedience. His hand had left her arm, but its pressure had been replaced on the collar of her dress. To her horror, she found he was drawing closer to her, the rough material of her dress digging into the delicate flesh of her neck. "Disobey me, and I cannot be responsible for the consequences," he said darkly, his fierce gaze holding her eyes imprisoned.

He retreated a few steps, a smirk appearing on his lips. "I shall begin by asking you what this Black Materia is. How is it connected to me?"

Aeris looked at him in shock. Was he mad? He knew everything about it... "W-what do you mean?"

"What is it? Where does it come from?"

Try as she did, Aeris could not withhold her astonishment. "What kind of sick game are you trying to play?" she asked, shivering at the perturbed expression he shot her. Nevertheless, she continued. "You took it from the Temple of the Ancients...we all saw it. Cloud gave it to you, after you manipulated him into it. Using the Black Materia, you were going to summon Meteor, where it would collide with the Planet and create substantial damage, so much that the very life of the Planet would be at risk. You said you would be in the very center of everything, all of the spiritual energy gathered to heal the wound. You would become all-powerful..." her voice trailed off until it was no more than a whisper.

"When did this happen?" he asked quietly. Aeris saw that he had turned away and had paced into the further darkness of the cave. There was a strange, immense anxiety in his voice.

"Not quite a week ago. D-don't you remember?"

"No," he said, facing her. "I do not remember anything."

Aeris stared at him wholeheartedly, her mouth slightly ajar as she watched him. A notion bit at her to press the subject, but she forced it away, allowing her captor to continue his interrogation.

It was a few moments later that he spoke again. "You. Why was _he_ trying to kill you?"  
"Because I was a threat to your plans," she replied.

"_My_ plans? You mean to say that I was the one at the helm of this insane predicament? I wanted to dominate the world?"

Aeris stared at him in disbelief. "You wanted to destroy it. You wanted to destroy it, and I had to stop you."

"I see," he replied softly. "And you, a survivor of the Cetra race, had the responsibility of ensuring the safety of the Planet and its beings. You had to die in order to for my plan to fail. Somehow, your death would counteract the summoning of Meteor and bring salvation unto the world..." His words were mystic, and distant, as if his words came to him from another source.

She sighed, not even noticing. "So now you know," she whispered, her voice calm. "Now you know your greatest fault. Now I will suffer for all eternity, knowing that I lived, when I should have died."

She scowled at him in sudden realization.

_Is this all it is? Its like a teacher that has read the material a thousand times or more, forcing the student to recite it exactly as it is written...Questions, all in order to torture me by making me relive everything...relive the fact that the Planet is going to be destroyed, because of me..._

Aeris was fighting with all her strength to contain her tears, but to no avail. The fading light from the outside shone on her face, causing the water that descended her cheeks to shimmer and sparkle.

- - - - - - - - - - 

Sephiroth felt he could no longer mask the truth from this girl's eyes. The way she looked at him, as if he were not a human at all, made him feel compelled to reach out, take her by the shoulders and shout in her face that he was _real_, he was _himself_, and that man-that _thing _that had meant to kill her on the altar was not _him_, it was someone else. But would she believe him?

He had noticed the light of suspicion spark in her eyes. She could obviously tell something was wrong. But how could he tell her and expect her to believe him? The girl had not even known his alter ego that had been wandering the Planet and making an infamous name for himself. It would be impossible for her to know _him_, the true Sephiroth. He knew one thing, though. The girl would not be compelled to trust her enemy, and right now, that was all he was in her eyes.

The girl would not tell him everything unless she knew the truth.

And if he was to go about it revealing his true nature, he would have to plot his words carefully. 

"I ask you now," he said after a long pause, "How long has it been since I was alive?"

He watched her turn, slowly. She faced him, her face still glittering with her tears. "What do you mean?" she asked in a hollowed voice. "What do you mean, _alive_?"

"I mean exactly as I say. The world as I see it now is not the same world that I remember. How long has it been? Tell me, what you know. When did I die?" At her silence, he brought his sword to her throat. "Tell me, when did I die?"

"Five years." As she said it, and gaped at the blade that should have taken her life, tears began to spill from her eyes freely. "It was...five years ago."

Masamune returned to his side. Five years. It had been five years...and the world had grown and changed without him. Or...had it?

"I was pronounced dead?" he asked.

"Yes," came her meek reply. "All over the news, all over."

His intent gaze seemed to freeze her heart in place.

"Then who was the man that tried to kill you?"

- - - - - - - - - -

Aeris felt it.

It was a change, so drastic she could feel it in the air. But at the same time, she could not believe the words that her greatest enemy had just uttered. The man she spoke to now was surely no villain. He spoke in broken words, as if he did not comprehend anything.

Even as she had hated him and burned him alive in the fires of her mind for making her horrible future more apparent than ever in her eyes, she had felt he was not the same man that had meant to kill her. Now, more than ever, that thought was relevant.

"He was-I thought it was you," she managed weakly.

Sephiroth glared at her. "Explain."

"Everyone did. Somehow back from the dead, continuing your mission after being away for five years. We didn't even think about how, or why you had returned, but we just knew you had, and something obviously had to be done about it."

"And so your journey began," he stated.

All light from the outside had faded. This gruesome day had drawn to a close, and now it was the night's turn to harbor the confusion and chaos its predecessor had passed on to it. Aeris wondered, distantly in the corner of her mind, if Sephiroth meant to press on before morning. He stood at the entrance to the cave, now, one hand bracing himself against the rocky wall. His eyes scanned the darkening world.

She could no longer contain herself. Something tore at her mind to challenge the man before her. Something was wrong about him. He was everything contrary to her darkest thoughts. His voice was the same, his stature, the same. But something was different. Either he had an extremely cruel sense of humor, or he simply was not the man she had envisioned. He was not the man that had described directly in front of her in the Temple of the Ancients just how he meant to destroy the Planet and all of humanity.

"Who are you?" she asked. The words seemed wrong, completely out of place, but at the same time, they captured everything. Everything she was questioning, seeking.

Aeris feared he would reprimand her, remind her who was to be asking the questions, but instead, he turned toward her. Upon hearing her words, his eyes narrowed and he began to approach her. She reflexively backed away. The fear in her heart refused to quench even when her adversary was in this complex, strange state of confusion.

But he was too quick for her, and try as she did, she could not avoid his enchanting eyes. She had backed into the smooth surface of the cave wall; she could feel the coolness of the stone. She turned her head away, but he caught her chin in his hand and angled her face so that she had no choice but to stare directly into his eyes.

"Can it be that you finally understand?" His words were laced in disbelief. His eyes seemed to be demanding of her, _Can I trust you?_

"Understand what?" she asked him, trying not to shiver at how close she was to him.

"I was lost. And while I was lost, bound to a gruesome fate, the world fell into the hands of chaos." He paused. "And now it is that I walk again. I have journeyed from the unknown, blindly pacing about in the dark, and I have fallen into a world that has continued without me. It has continued without my presence, and consequently, without my consent. Do you understand?"

Aeris's mind was riveted on his words. As far back as she could remember, she had always known honesty when she heard it. Sephiroth's words were nothing less than honest. And then it was that she understood. Revelation had carved a deep wound in her head, festering with denial and disbelief, but it could be healed. Not easily, but it was still possible.

_He's...the real...Sephiroth..._

That wound in her head began to bleed. Everything was wrong. All along, they had been wrong. On their journey to save the Planet, AVALANCHE had appointed Sephiroth the chief villain, the ultimate adversary in the matter. But now it was obvious that it was not Sephiroth at all. The real man stood before her, in the flesh, claiming to know nothing. And she believed he was telling the truth.

The clone had fooled them all. His face, his words, they had fooled them. They had followed him, he who had been a brutal, heartless being and had completely warped their view of the true man. But did he truly have a mind of his own, only created to suit his evil purpose? Or was there another, controlling the creature as if it were a pawn of destruction?

Something else was at work here, and Aeris realized that it was now imperative she discover what it was. Only then could the Planet be saved, and perhaps she could fulfill her purpose after all.

"What are you thinking?" Sephiroth asked her. He had said nothing for several minutes, desiring only to tread lightly on the prospect that she only might believe and accept him.

Aeris turned toward him, as if he were Cloud, the leader of the group, once again asking what to do next. "We need to find the Black Materia," she said it as it if were painstakingly obvious. "We need to get it back, and quickly."


	11. Ten

"Damn, man. That's the second time in two days you gone and done dat to us."

As Cloud's eyes drifted open, the image of his friends concernedly staring at him cast his mind into an all-too-familiar state of despair. A fear gnawed at his often over-confident character; he would have loved to assume everything was all right. Barret's face, however, was void of anything except a momentary relief that lit up his eyes the moment Cloud met them. All else that came after was hardened regret.

It had happened again. He had not meant to allow it to happen again, but it had. This was the second time he had awoken with his friends sitting around his bedside, and this was the second time that he had awoken to find Aeris missing. Though nothing had been said, he knew it to be true.

He rose, rubbing the back of his head. He was in a house...one of the shell houses in the Ancient City. Dust lay everywhere. It covered the remnants of long forgotten furniture, clouded the windows. It even hung in the torch-lit air. It was a wonder its thickness didn't extinguish the flames. "Where's...Aeris?" Cloud asked, longing to hear the answer he desired but knew the response would not at all be pleasing.

Barret sighed. "Gone again. Dunno where she is. Her and Sephiroth left-"

"How long ago?" Cloud demanded.

"Let's see, musta been about three hours ago..."

Cloud started for the door, not even bothering to acknowledge Tifa, not even bothering to thank them both for dragging him back up to the surface from the altar. All that mattered was that there was still time. Sephiroth couldn't have gone more than a few miles...

"Wait a second!" Barret said, moving and clapping him on the shoulder. "You're forgettin' somethin'."

Cloud turned impatiently and stared as Barret thrust a closed left fist at him. The man's knuckles were white from the grip his fingers were imposing on whatever object he carried. The hand unfurled. A great flash erupted from Barret's palm. Tifa, who had been sitting in a chair near a high window, let out a cry of surprise as her hands immediately flew up to shield her eyes.

There was no doubt as to what the object was.

_B l a c k M a t e r i a..._

"Black Materia," Cloud muttered. "But...how? How did you get it back? You said Sephiroth made off with Aeris-"

"An' he forgot it. Daresay he looked as if he didn't even notice when he walked away."

"Its almost as if taking Aeris and hurrying away was a more pressing matter than his entire plot," Tifa commented. Her face was so plagued by disbelief that Cloud could see she had struggled omitting the words out loud. He couldn't blame her, either. The matter was ridiculous...at least, in the sense his mind was taking it.

_He wants to use Aeris for something, _Cloud thought. _That's the only explanation..._

The ebony stone flickered in the firelight, and caught Cloud's eye. As his gaze caressed the flawless shadowy surface, he felt an urge to reach for it, hold it in his hand. A desire, an impulse, unlike anything he had ever felt before, seemed to clutch him and tow him forcefully toward the prospect of losing himself in the dark depths that sheltered such an ancient, terrifying power.

The temptation was agonizing.

Things, horrible, gruesome things that had seemed so absurd to him only a short time ago now seemed entirely rational. Within the murky stone, he saw destruction...but it was chaos that begged for a master. It was devastation that pleaded for one to claim the right to command its power. So much power, just at his fingertips...

"Hey!"

When Barret suddenly jerked his hand back, Cloud realized his thoughts had indeed become his actions. He recoiled, stepping back several paces with a hope that he had done nothing more than just reach for it. His mind scrambled for the proper words to mask his insecurity.

"What's the matter, Barret?" he finally asked, taking a deep breath. He worked off building on the newly-established concept that would make Barret seem the suspicious one.

But Barret regarded him with eyes that had hardened over many years of hearing a great deal of nonsense and sorting it from the truth. "Cloud, what were you gonna do? You had this weird look on yer face..."

Cloud shot him a perturbed expression of puzzlement. "I-I don't understand what you mean."

Barret's eyes clearly told him he did not buy his act for a moment, but he nodded his head in acceptance. "Been through a lot, haven't you? Shouldn't come near this thing. Not after what happened last time. That's why _we're_ gonna hold onto it. The others'll be here soon."

"_What_?" Cloud snapped, astonished. The anger that burned in his glance was one that was clearly not of his own creation; something was stirring inside him, coming to life. It seemed to flow throughout the crevices of his mind, nourishing the passages with a new, terrifying hatred. He felt it, a great fist, stretching its claws and slowly, painfully but exuberantly slicing into his thoughts. Cloud's hands came up to his temples, digging his fingernails into his skin in hope to relieve himself of the immense pressure. His face was a twisted, constricted mask of agony.

His mind was being taken away from him. It was just like every other time, but apart of him usually resided to fight it back-whatever "it" was. But not this time. There was nothing left to fight with. The flame of his independent control was dying in a strong wind that showed no sign of letting up. All his internal strength soon gave out. Nothing remained but darkness.

Cloud stood there, seeming to recover. But his face was affixed in a wicked grin.

Tifa approached him with wide eyes. "Cloud?" she attempted. But he only stared at her. No, not at her. His gaze was distant, as if he were gazing directly through the wall in front of him. His eyes were glazed in a sort of smug slyness. His fists were clenched in suspended fury. His entire figure posed a threat as a bomb that would explode at any time, any moment.

"Cloud!" Tifa cried, waving her hand in front of his unblinking eyes. "Cloud, fight it! Come back! Cloud!"

Cloud's voice came in an unearthly tone, so eerie it sent a shiver down Tifa's spine. _"Fool mortal...he cannot fight me anymore. He must accept his fate, it is inescapable."_

Tifa gaped at him in horror. "_Cloud_! Come back!" In a last resort, she threw up her arms. "_Sephiroth_! _Let him go_! Go away, oh go away! _I hate you_!"

Cloud's form jerked repeatedly. He let out a cry of anguish and closed his eyes tightly as beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. "Tifa...Tifa..." he uttered through clenched teeth. "Its...getting...too hard to keep back..."

Tifa, thinking it was her words that had miraculously brought him back, began to reach for him. "Its okay, Cloud...everything's going to be okay..."

A soft voice broke the tension in the room.

"Is it? Is it really?"

- - - - - - - - - -

Aeris hurried in through the door. She pleaded silently that she had not come too late. Almost immediately, the atmosphere seemed to drastically change. Aeris saw her comrades look at her with warm smiles; the light in their eyes seeming as if they would never see sorrow again. It was as if a niche in peace had been filled in the reality in which they all lived. Cloud had even retreated, for the time being, from his moment of insanity.

It had been her doing. The goodness and grace that seemed to flow constantly from her had somehow brought Cloud back. Just by her being there, in that room, all tension and hatred had melted away.

Sephiroth lingered in the doorway, awaiting to see what the girl would do. The other female occupant caught sight of him, and gasped. "He's come back for the Black Materia!" she shouted warily, scrambling away on her hands and knees. She thrust her finger out and pointed at him. "Not this time, Sephiroth! He hasn't got it!" she cried triumphantly, gesturing at Cloud. Her face became a serious expression of defiance. "And you will have to kill us if you want it this time."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, feeling apt to laugh at the girl's challenge. It was strange, witnessing this story that the Cetra's friends told, about a man that had apparently been labeled insane. And it was with the knowledge that he, Sephiroth, supposedly was that man. But the role-playing was beginning to bore and annoy him. It was time matters were sorted out.

He looked toward the Cetra girl. "Tell them," he said plainly. "Tell them how it is."

Aeris stared at him. "Sephiroth, I-"

"Now." He commanded.

She sighed. "Its not what you think it is," she said to Tifa.

"What do you mean?" Tifa demanded, glaring at Aeris now and pointing once again at Sephiroth. "There he is. The man we've chased halfway around the Planet in order to stop his killing spree and prevent him from getting the Promised Land! The man that destroyed Nibelheim and killed my father! _How can it be anything different from what I'm thinking it is_?"

Aeris sighed, deeply. Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "I don't understand it all!" she exclaimed. "It wasn't Sephiroth-it was someone else the entire time-"

_"I see you've solved the puzzle at last." _That same, supernatural voice erupted from Cloud. On his face was a smirk of foreign malice, the same one that had fit Sephiroth's features countless times before. _"Well done, Cetra."_

Something struck Sephiroth senseless. _That voice..._

Cloud, who was obviously no longer Cloud, let out a vicious cackle of evil laughter. "_It has all come to this. The other who holds evidence of my existence has lost the ability to contain me. He no longer hears my words. The Cetra beasts themselves have marked him and rid him of me. After he failed his mission and was lost."_

Aeris was the only occupant in the room that seemed to understand, other than Sephiroth, who was stunned by the familiarity of the voice that came from Cloud's mouth. Aeris retreated a few steps from Cloud's possessed form, but was not frightened. "I see now," she said calmly. "You are the evil. You are the one behind everything..."

_"Once again, correct. It would have been ages before your silly mortal friends would have realized they were chasing the wrong being. But you've opened their eyes. Not that it matters, oh no. My plan shall very well take action and run along its designated course."_

Aeris shook her head. "No, I won't let it happen."

The voice laughed._ "Foolish Cetra scum. You have not the power to fight back against me. My will is stronger than yours. You are only half of that impudent, foolish race. Yet you shall die just as your ancestors did, tripping over themselves to try and defeat me. They thought hiding the Materia in the temple was enough to stop me from conquering the Planet. No. It is destiny that I shall rule..."_

"No!" Aeris cried. "I won't let it happen!"

Sephiroth abandoned his spectator post by the door and stepped up to Aeris' side. "Jenova," he said, regarding Cloud with a nod. Aeris stared at him in disbelief.

Cloud laughed. _"The failed minion! What brings you here? I have no use for you, now."_

"There are none who may use me and live to tell the tale," he said darkly. "I was made a fool by you. Cast into the darkness of confusion, cast into the very hands of death because of your will. It was tempting, I shall not deny it, but I want no part in it any longer. You shall pay dearly for the crime you've committed-for the illusion you've spun." His sword was in his hand, raised to kill.

But it was not Sephiroth's words, nor the anger in them, that Tifa saw as he menacingly held his sword over Cloud. It was Cloud's life, she saw, and Sephiroth's more than keen ability to take that life away. She tackled Cloud's form to the ground. "No! I won't let you kill him too!" she cried to Sephiroth.

But Cloud had started to laugh. He threw Tifa's form from him into the wall. _"You no longer have the power to do it, Minion," _he said, staring at Sephiroth._ "Not anymore." _Cloud's form turned to Barret, who had, until only recently, been guarding Tifa. _"Enough of this nonsense. Give me the Black Materia."_

Barret only stared, wide-eyed. His eyes darted from Aeris, to Tifa, to Sephiroth, his head rapidly shaking in an overwhelmed fit.

_"Give it to me!"_

A ray of red light struck Barret squarely in the chest, knocking him into the wall right beside Tifa. With a painful grunt, his hand opened, and the Materia clattered to the floor. Cloud held out his hand, and the orb immediately rose and landed in his open palm.

With a sinister grin, he faced Aeris. His finger-tips began to glow a furious red. _"You, Cetra. You will soon meet your end as well. I fear not you, you have not the strength of your ancestors. But you are a nuisance, as it is."_

Sephiroth foresaw the assault. The moment the red beam leapt from Cloud's outstretched hand, aimed directly at Aeris, Masamune rose and deflected the beam so that it struck and shattered one of the windows. Glass spilled everywhere.

And it struck Sephiroth right then, as Cloud darted out the door and disappeared into the evening sky, that he had saved the Cetra-Aeris, her name was-twice. And this time, it had not been for his sole interests. To his dismay, he found the very image of her impaled by the creature a gruesome picture that he wanted to discard and shred into a thousand pieces. He found any thought of the girl suffering as a dagger to his heart; it was unbearable to see her in pain.

But it was insanity in itself, and he did not understand the reason why.

He found he would die from the agony if he were to ever see her hurt.

But he did not understand why.

Perhaps it was because she was like a last glimmer of hope in solving the mysteries that his mind bled. Perhaps it was because she was a seemingly great threat to the creature that he hated, and wanted to destroy, tearing limb from limb, for what it had done to him.

The girl would need to be watched closely, no matter what purpose she served right now. There was no doubt of that, and Sephiroth accepted, with a curt nod to no one, that he was the only one that could offer her that sort of protection.

He stalked out of the house. It did not matter to him what happened to the girl's friends. They would just as soon kill him than look at him. Even toward the end, when everything had been revealed, the stubborn dark-haired girl had still seen him, Sephiroth, as the villain. The only one who had understood was Aeris.

And it was her that followed him out. She was still too stunned to speak. Sephiroth took her moment of incapability as an opportunity. He grabbed her again by her forearm. "You're coming with me to Midgar," he told her, his voice completely void of anything but order.

- - - - - - - - - - 

Aeris could do nothing but be compliant in his demand. Once again, she was completely at the man's mercy. But she could not prevent the relief that had begun to flow in her mind. A part of her, though she dare not admit it out loud, longed to remain with the only man who had taken her side a few moments ago- the only person who had seemed as useful as she herself was in the current mystery.

She did not know what was in Midgar, or why they were heading there, but she only complied.

She did not want to leave Tifa and Barret alone and confused in the Capital, but she had no choice. She had a feeling she would meet up with them again before everything was over.

Aeris knew very well what Jenova would force Cloud to do. And it was only a matter of time before everything happened.

Before everything happened, just as it would have anyway.

But this time, it would be Cloud, not Sephiroth, that would be at the helm of destruction.

The hero has become the villain.

As Aeris struggled to keep up with Sephiroth as he headed back in the direction of Corral Cave, her mind wandered dreamily into the starlit sky, and all thoughts, even of the current crisis, melted away. The same, single sentence hung suspended like a glittering constellation of awe in space before her.

_The hero has become the villain._

__


	12. Eleven

Rufus Shinra stood before the great window in his office, eyes scouring the city below him, hands neatly folded behind his back. His lips transfixed themselves into a smirk at the realization that struck him. He was confident everything would succeed, and at a level that would far best the accomplishments of his father.

In contrast to his arrogant mood, it baffled him how well his old man's influence still managed to hang around. True, it had been a mere two weeks since his rather bloody departure from the Planet, but it was remarkable how he could still be felt everywhere. Every time Rufus entered this room, that was once his father's office, he felt a need to announce his arrival with a formal greeting. But he nearly slapped himself in the forehead each time, when he realized reality. He was, to his great distress, harking to the ghost of the man he had loathed for as long as he could remember.

But President Shinra was no more than a ghost. He could not interfere.

"Sorry, Old Man," Rufus muttered, flicking his ginger hair from his eyes. "Too late. Its my turn now." He turned to face the great desk behind him. His hands pulled apart, and he raised a hand, clenched it into a fist, and shook it. "You hear me? You failed."

"Mr. President?"

Rufus' sapphire eyes darted to the opposite end of the room. "What is it?" he replied, not bothering to shed the anger from his voice. He sighed and straightened the sleeves on his white trench coat. He sighed. "Of course. The conference. Is there really a need for it?"

The man standing at the far end of the room straightened his glasses and flicked a strand of long, ebony hair behind his back. His arms, clad in the sleeves of a well-weathered lab coat, crossed themselves over his chest. A bark of laughter broke the silence in the room. "That's what makes you an inferior replacement, you know."

Rufus narrowed his eyes. "Don't speak to me like I'm one of your experiments, Hojo," he spat. "That little bit of indiscretion is costly, and is what makes you a second-rate scientist."

Hojo's jaw tightened. "Of course, you would choose to defy previous standards. It is only logical."

Rufus rolled his eyes, disgusted by the reminder of the way his father always liked to attend the conferences, giving them long, involved speeches. "The people shall be controlled by an iron fist, not by money. Speeches are pleasant ways to win affection, but why waste my breath? I'm not like my father." He smirked, then, drastically changing the atmosphere in the spacious room. "I was hoping, rather, you were here to enlighten me."

Hojo approached him. "Yes, I suppose I could do that."

Rufus nodded in affirmation. "Then, please."

"There has actually been a change in Sephiroth's course. The main clone, the one we believe killed President Shinra, was found dead last night in the City of the Ancients. Head severed, high-intensity liquefied Mako surrounding it."

Rufus raised his eyebrows. All thoughts of the conference were put aside-he no longer cared. "Was it Cloud that did it?" he suggested with a hint of surprise in his voice.

Hojo shook his head. "We believe so, but we are only eight five percent positive. Fifteen percent contains questions, errors in observation and the well-being of the observer-"

"Which was?" Rufus cut in.

"The Turks."

A moment of silence passed before the young president found the words to judge the situation. "This sounds, rather fortunate."

"Not quite. As you know, the clones are all controlled-theoretically, of course-by the true Sephiorth's will. Therefore, it was his decision to see this one die. According to our calculations, it is almost entirely a possibility that the real Sephiroth is still seeking the Promised Land."

Rufus struggled to maintain an indifferent expression. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed," he said bitterly. "Is there any way at all that we can get there first? Though, I strongly doubt if we put a flag in the ground first it will mean anything to him."

"I suggest we allow this Cloud and his companions the right to deal with him. Statistics and past evidence show that they have proven themselves extremely effective against him, though their power is hardly a worthy comparison to Sephiroth's. Shinra Inc. should intervene only when absolutely necessary."

"You're actually making sense," Rufus said with a cocky grin. "But it only means more waiting."

"Patience is a virtue," the sly scientist remarked coldly. "And I sincerely doubt you will ever find your Promised Land anyway. Its utter nonsense, an old wives' tale."

Rufus dwelled on the thought of scorning Hojo's career approach for a moment, but soon tossed the prospect aside. It wasn't worth it, the man was never going to change. But he got his job done, and that was all that mattered. Though he despised it, Rufus felt he would have to go with his old man's judgment when it came to the eccentric scientist, and just turn a blind eye to his oddity.

"The conference awaits," Hojo said, already pacing away to the elevator.

"Tell them its cancelled, on account of breaking news."

"I am a scientist, not a messenger."

"Apparently, you're _both._ Its thanks to you, after all, that I won't be attending. Too many things to think about. The very purpose of the meeting has been ripped to shreds-there can't be a beginning to this search for the Promised Land until we have a clear shot."

Hojo murmured something that was just out of earshot, and then was gone.

Rufus turned away, stretching his arms over his head and rocking his neck back and forth.

_Well, this complicates things._

The elevator doors slid open, and a single form emerged and darted into the room. It was Elena, the blond, secretary-turned-Turk. She had begun her new career by overcompensating her power, and had often made rash decisions that had done nothing but hinder Shinra's pursuit of Sephiroth. She had a huge amount of respect for the late Tseng, though, Rufus knew. But that, if anything, had saved her from making any more mistakes.

"Mr. President?" she inquired, skidding to a halt in front of him. "I have news for you!"

He regarded her from the corner of his eye. "Shouldn't you be tracking Sephiroth?"

"Yes, Sir. I was, Sir. But you see, the communication to the Northern Continent is very shaky, and I was afraid of a bad transmission, so I decided to report to you directly, Sir-"

"And let him gain another few days time ahead of us?"

Elena shuddered, her head bowed, blonde hair nearly hiding her face. "I-no, Sir. Agent Reno and Agent Rude are on the case as we speak. We've located him. He's in Icicle Town!"

"But for how long? You think its an impossibility that he can just up and go right under your noses? Or vanish from sight even if just you take the time to blink? He's done it before, Elena, he can do it again. Besides, Professor Hojo has informed me that the Sephiroth the Turks are pursuing is now dead."

"Yes, I know, I reported it," Elena said, head now raised and brows knitted together in confusion. "But I don't understand. If he's dead, then who are we pursuing _now_? And I mean, its not like before, where we thought he was dead but he really wasn't. I saw the body. No way that couldn't be classified as dead. He can't come back from that."

Rufus shook his head, and pressed his hand to his forehead. "I forget how little you know. But that doesn't matter. Go ahead with your report."

Elena took a breath. "He was accompanied by a girl. The same one that Tseng called 'The Ancient', and the same one that I believe was considered to be very valuable to Shinra Inc. They passed through the outskirts just three hours ago, and are staying the very same inn as the Turks."

Rufus was silent. "Well, this is sudden and unexpected."

Elena took his statement as a need to spread the news. "Should I inform Professor Hojo?"

The president shook his head. "No. Not yet. Get back there, now. How long is the flight by helicopter, two hours or so? The Northern Continent isn't that far. Anyway, watch him. Do not let him leave that inn without you watching him as he goes through the door. If he has this Ancient with him, it should significantly slow him down, especially considering the fact that she's on Cloud's side. He should be easier to follow."

Elena scurried to the elevator and clambered her way into it.

Rufus smiled to himself as he turned to once again stare out the window.

_Good things come to those who choose to wait, _he thought smugly. _Unfortunately for you, old man, you didn't wait long enough._

- - - - - - - - - -

An entire day had come and gone since the incident in the Capitol. Night had fallen again. Aeris trudged far behind her captor, shivering with a cold that not only encased her outer body, but one that had delved into her mind as well, and caused it to nearly freeze in place. And she was grateful, in a way, that nature had relieved her from over-thinking her situation by making it nearly impossible to do so.

It was the only comfort, even if it was indirect, that she had felt from the Planet for a long while. There had been nothing threaded into her mind, no sign of confirmation that the path on which her feet now carried her was indeed the next rightful advancement in her life. Nothing, even, had come from the voice of her mother, with whom she had spoken to at will for as long as she could remember. It had been too crowed and noisy in Midgar, and only in the sanctity of the church in the slums could she hear her mother's voice. Now, just as freely, in the quiet and unspoiled silence of the wild, she would expect to hear her, but nothing came. She waited, hour after hour, in Corral Cave, and then in the snow fields, for anything to arrive so familiarly in her head. But nothing came, and all she could do was blindly follow Sephiroth.

There had been no breaking camp, no fire, no soft place to rest her head. They had been walking the entire time, saying nothing. Aeris had expected nothing less, of course. In the meantime, she had managed to pull a Hyper capsule from one of the pockets of her red jacket beneath her cloak, and had swallowed it down. It had given her energy, and a will, to keep going, for she feared what would happen if she collapsed in the snow. The strange yet majestic man that paced so tirelessly before her was one that had failed to kill her even when foreseen to do so, but she knew nothing else about him.

And it made her heart ache all the more.

Only recently had the thoughts of long ago girlish admiration come rushing back to her. How she had seen him in her thoughts, in her dreams. How she had shivered but marveled at the killing of his enemies, when she had felt all of the unfortunate souls enter the Lifestream after their encounter with the deadly Shinra general. It was during the war with Wutai that he had truly become a hero, after all. She had felt a pang in her heart when it had been her foster mother's husband that had been the victim. But she had looked past all of that. War was a mortal event, that turned mortal against mortal. It was only fitting that he, Sephiroth-though considered to be a god among men was still, in fact, human-he could get caught up in it.

But when he had waged war against the Planet, it was a sin too strong for her to overlook. She had promised herself, in spite of her gentle disposition, that she would never forgive him for such a feat. Now, however, things were different. That version of the general had died back in the Ancient City. The one she was following now was the very same one she had admired from afar for so many years. It was insane, but true, and staring her directly in the eye.

But it was futile. All of those secret thoughts and dreams of hers would never amount to anything, like she had always told herself they wouldn't...

"A penny for your thoughts."

His voice thawed her mind a bit, and she suddenly realized that she had fallen behind. Sephiroth stood before her, his hair whipping wildly about his face in the frigid wind. The light of his eyes had intensified in the chill air, and were filled with smugness.

"I'm-I'm sorry," Aeris uttered, her face a mask of apology.

"We're nearly there."

"Sorry, but where exactly is _there?_"

- - - - - - - - - -

He had never been a man of humble nature, but nevertheless, he felt pity for her right then and there, at that precise moment. She was so helpless, but so _strong, _he reminded himself curtly. She had made it all this way, without a single word. It would be expected of him to take advantage of her cooperation, and just press on the rest of the way. But he owed her a great deal, and it would be the least he could do to grant her what he figured her heart most desired at this very point in time.

Rest.

"We're stopping in Icicle Town. At the inn."

It was worth it, he assured himself, as he watched the life he had admired draw back into her eyes.

Another twenty minutes, and they had reached the town. The land had begun to slope upwards, and so the lights of the tiny cluster of log buildings had been sheltered until the very last moment, when they were upon it.

"It would probably be best for you to arrange for the accommodations," he said to her as they passed through the narrow line of trees and neared the inn. His tone was one of an order, rather than a suggestion.

They stopped on the doorstep. She peered into his eyes. "But what about you?"

"I'll find you, don't worry." He took hold of her hand, and when she obediently opened it, he released a handful of gil into it. "Use this."

She took it, and hesitantly backed away from him, opened the door, and was gone as it clicked shut behind her.

Sephiroth sighed deeply, walking briskly back into the shelter of the trees. He raised an eyebrow as he heard a twig snap. He turned in the direction from whence the sound had come from, and noticed a small blonde woman scurry away into the darkness. Suspicion tore at him, and he felt a need to press on, and immediately. Standing out here like this was an invitation for trouble.

But Aeris needed to rest, and he would let her, at least until dawn.

It was going to be a long night.

- - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Sorry it took so long for the update! I was on vacation and not near a computer for quite a while, so...forgive me! Hope this sort-of-long chapter makes up for it. Oh yeah, and, like so many other great fics I've read, I'd like to say that things in the romance department are going to take a little time. Love is such a complicated thing, after all. : )


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